Method and device for distributing connections towards a receiving domain

ABSTRACT

A method is described for distributing a plurality of connections towards a receiving domain. The connections are established over at least two connection entities. Each connection entity handles traffic being associated to the connections. An initial procedure distributes the connections among the connection entities. First, a traffic load associated with the connections over each of the connection entities is determined. Further, the traffic load associated with the connections over at least two connection entities is compared. Finally a procedure for adapting the distribution of the connections according to the comparison is invoked.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method for distributing connectionstowards a receiving domain. A device and a program embodying theinvention are also described.

BACKGROUND

A directory is a set of objects organized in a logical and hierarchicalmanner. An example of a directory is a telephone directory, whichconsists of a series of names, e.g. of persons or organizations,organized alphabetically, with each name having an address and phonenumber attached. A directory can be regarded as a tree of entries alsoknown as directory information tree, or simply directory tree, due tothe fact that data is represented in a hierarchical tree-like structure.The data in a directory can be managed by directory services.

Modifications and queries in a directory can be made using applicationprotocols e.g. the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). One ormore servers may contain the data making up the directory. In case of adistributed directory, regardless of which server a client connects to,it has the same view of the directory; a name presented to a serverrefers to the same entry it would refer to on another server.

There is an increasing interest in applications, especially intelecommunications networks, which could benefit from the capabilitiesoffered by a central database, hosted e.g. on a server database. Towardsthis server database more than one client may need to be connected overa communication network. In this case for each client-server pair adedicated connection is established.

A client can be any telecom node or computer or board or apparatus thatcommunicates towards a server database through e.g. an LDAP basedservice. An LDAP Server database is any directory that offers thepossibility to read/write data through an LDAP based service.

A client node hosting several clients uses a pool of hardware boardsover which the LDAP connections are established towards the remote LDAPserver databases. The hardware boards are shared among the clients usingthem and thus one hardware board can host connections between multipleclients and servers and multiple connections between a singleclient-server pair.

Once a connection is established over a hardware board it remains onthat board until an order of disconnection is given or until an eventoccurs that breaks the connection. So, for example, one or moreestablished connections over a hardware board are usually not moved fromthat board, unless a hardware or network failure occurs. That might leadto an inefficient use of the hardware resources.

If a new hardware board is introduced into the pool of existing hardwareboards then this new board will only be used to host new connectionstowards the server database. Within the pool there may be overloaded,hardware boards. Also, if more than one board suddenly becomesunavailable then the connections hosted by them can be transferred toother boards within the pool. Nevertheless once the boards which becameunavailable are available again then they will not be used to hostexisting connections again but they will only be used for newconnections. In general there is the risk that a high number ofconnections are established over a few boards while having other boardsavailable but unused. This can create problems of congestion orconnections being dropped due to overload or unavailability of hardwareboards. The problem can become even bigger in case the boards used inthe pool have different capacities and/or performance. Using lowercapacity boards while leaving higher capacity ones unused is aninefficient usage of resources.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present invention to obviate the abovedisadvantages and provide an advantageous method for distributingconnections between clients and a receiving domain.

According to the invention, the method described in an independent isperformed. Furthermore, the invention is embodied in a device and aprogram as described in the further independent claims. Embodiments ofthe invention are described in the dependent claims.

A method for distributing connections towards a receiving domain isproposed. The connections are established over at least two connectionentities. Each connection entity handles traffic which is associated tothe connections. An initial procedure distributes the connections amongthe connection entities. According to the method, first, for each of theconnection entities, a traffic load associated with the connections overthe respective connection entity is determined. Further, the trafficload associated with the connections over the at least two connectionentities is compared. Finally a procedure is invoked for adapting thedistribution of the connections according to the comparison.

Furthermore, the invention can be embodied in a device for distributingconnections towards a receiving domain. The connections are establishedover at least two connection entities. Each connection entity handlestraffic which is associated to the connections. An initial proceduredistributes the connections among the connection entities. The devicecomprises an interface which is adapted to obtain, for each of theconnection entities, a traffic load associated with the connections overthe respective connection entity. Further the device comprises acomparator which is adapted to compare the traffic load associated withthe connections over at least two connection entities, obtained by theinterface. Further the device comprises a processor which is adapted toinvoke a procedure for adapting the distribution of the connectionsaccording to the comparison performed by the comparator.

The method can also be embodied in a program which is, for example,stored on a data carrier or loadable into a processing system of amobile device, e.g. as a sequence of signals.

The proposed method and devices allow an advantageous distribution ofconnections towards a receiving domain while avoiding inefficienthardware usage.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will become more apparent in the following detaileddescription of preferred embodiments as illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a client-server arrangement

FIG. 2 shows connections moved among connection boards

FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram of a method for connection re-distribution

FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram of an embodiment of the proposed method

FIG. 5 shows a device which is adapted to perform the proposed method

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a client-server arrangement. The serversform a server database 102. Service requests from the clients 100towards the server database 102 are transmitted over connections whichare established between the clients and the server database. Theconnections are first established towards a connection distributor 104which distributes them to connection boards 106 which are responsiblefor establishing the connections further towards the server database102. The connection boards 106 can be implemented as hardware, in whichcase they can be called hardware boards, or as virtual hardwareplatforms implemented e.g. in software. Regardless of theirimplementation the connection boards can be also referred to asconnection entities.

The connections over the connection boards 106 can be initiallydistributed according to the traffic data volume capacity of each board.For example, a connection board 106 handling lower traffic data volumethan the other boards can be selected to host new connections. Theconnection boards 106 can be either of the same type, i.e. the have sameor similar capacity or processing power or be of different types i.e.they have different capacities or processing power. The connections arefurther established from the connection boards 106 towards the serverdatabase 102 over a communication network 108 which can be, for example,an Internet protocol (IP) based network. In case of an IP based networkan LDAP based service can be used to communicate service requestsbetween the clients 100 and the server database 102 over LDAPconnections established between them. The server database 102 can beconsidered as a receiving domain as it receives connections from theclient domain, i.e. the connection boards handle traffic between domainsdefined by the connection endpoints.

As mentioned before, once the connections are established they are notmoved unless a disconnection order is given or an unexpected event, likea hardware failure, occurs.

According to the proposed method, a re-distribution mechanism isprovided that allows an efficient re-distribution of existingconnections between a client and a server and furthermore an efficientdistribution of new connections being established between a client and aserver. The method can therefore be also referred to as a“re-distribution method”. It can be configured to be launchedautomatically e.g. periodically in order to maintain a good connectiondistribution of the connections throughout the operation of aclient-server arrangement. The proposed method is not limited to theclient-server networking architecture but can also be applied in casesof peer-to-peer networking architecture.

The method allows the optimization of the distribution of connectionsamong the connection boards by moving them from highly or over-loaded tounder-loaded boards. A connection board is considered highly orover-loaded if it is handling the most total traffic data volume of allthe available boards. Accordingly an under-loaded connection board ishandling the least total traffic data volume of the available boards.The distribution of the connections among the connection boards isachieved without affecting the ongoing operations as will be describedlater. The target of this mechanism is to balance, as much as possible,the traffic volume over all the functioning boards which are available.In order to identify which connections can be moved a target value canbe set. According to this value the difference between the total trafficdata volume handled by the over-loaded and the under-loaded boards isminimized by moving one or more connections among the hardware boards.The total traffic data volume of a board is obtained by summing alltraffic data volumes assigned to the connections hosted by that board.

The traffic data volume is a measure of the total load on a resource. Inthe case of the invention the traffic data volume provides an indicationof the amount of data which is handled by the connection boards due tohosting connections between the clients and the server database. In thecase of a peer-to-peer networking architecture the traffic data volumeprovides an indication of the amount of data exchanged between thepeers. For the description which follows and for explanatory purposesthe traffic data volume shall be described using a scale from 1 to 5according to the following table:

Value Traffic Data Volume 1 Low 2 Moderate 3 Average 4 Sustained 5 High

FIG. 2 shows connections being moved among connection boards accordingto the invention. In FIG. 2 a a number of connections 208-220 which areestablished over a number of connection boards 204-206 are shown. Theconnection boards 204-206 can be, for example, the ones shown in FIG. 1.It is assumed that the connection boards have equal or similar trafficdata volume capacity. As shown in FIG. 2 a, there are four establishedconnections towards a network 200 over connection board 202. Theseconnections 208, 210, 212 and 214 handle a traffic data volume value of1, 3, 4 and 5 accordingly. Thus, the total traffic data volume handledby connection board 202 is 13 as it is the sum of the traffic datavolume values of each connection. Similarly the total traffic datavolume handled by connection board 204 is 4 due to the connections 216and 218. The total traffic data volume handled by connection board 206is 5 due to the connection 220. The traffic data volumes are shown inFIG. 2 a at the beginning of the lines representing the connections208-220. A measuring unit can be used to measure the total traffic datavolume, for example, Erlang (E).

Taking into account the total traffic data volume of each connectionboard it is observed that connection board 202 has the highest totaltraffic data volume and connection board 204 the lowest. As mentionedbefore, according to the invention, the existing connections arere-distributed among the connection boards in order to minimize thedifference between connection boards 202 and 204 and also to balance thetotal traffic data volume among all connection boards. Balancing thetotal traffic data volume means that all boards share a similar trafficdata volume but not necessarily exactly the same. For this purpose, asshown in FIG. 2 b, connection 212 is moved from connection board 202 toconnection board 204. The new total traffic data volumes over eachconnection boards are 9 over board 202, 8 over board 204 and 5 overboard 206. The data volumes are still not considered to be balancedamong the boards since there are still connections which, if they aremoved among the boards, a better distribution of the traffic data volumewill occur. For this reason, as also shown in FIG. 2 b, connection 208is moved from connection board 202 to connection board 206. In the endof this process it is observed that the total traffic data volumes amongthe connections boards are 8, 8 and 6 and it is also observed that thereis no existing connection which, if moved could provide a better balanceof the total traffic data volumes among the connection boards. Theobjective of having similar total traffic data volumes among allavailable boards is thus achieved and the process stops.

In another embodiment, the connection boards shown in FIG. 2 do not havethe same traffic data volume capacities. For example, connection boards202 and 206 may have the same traffic data volume capacity andconnection board 204 may have a smaller capacity than the other two. Forthis reason a board factor can be introduced. The board factor can beconsidered to be a traffic data volume factor since it can be used todetermine a ratio of the capacities of the connection boards which areused. In this embodiment the board factor is the ratio between thecapacity of the higher capacity board and the capacity of the lowercapacity board. The board factor is determined when a pool of connectionboards is used to host connections between clients and servers orbetween peers. When it is known what connection boards are available inthe pool the board factor can be determined based on the capacities ofthe available boards. The board factor can be changed in case newconnection boards with different capacities are inserted in the pool.

Also in the case of different capacity connection boards there-distribution mechanism shown in FIG. 2 can be applied. In this casethough the mechanism is adjusted and so the calculation of the totaltraffic data volumes over the connection boards and more specificallyover the connection boards with the least capacity is different. Forexplanatory reasons, and as an example, it is considered that the boardfactor is 3. The board factor is used to multiply the total traffic loadof the least capacity connection board. In the case shown in FIG. 2 athe total traffic volume of connection board 204 is 12 since the trafficvolume of connections 216 and 218 is multiplied by the board factorwhich is 3. Based on this calculation the re-distribution mechanismdescribed before is applied. Any new traffic data volume which may occuron connection board 204 is always multiplied by the board factor inorder to calculate the total traffic data volume of board 204.

In case of different capacity connection boards the total traffic datavolume over the connection boards can be adjusted by multiplication witha factor representing the reciprocal capacity.

The reason for the introduction of the board factor is the following. Asmentioned before, an objective of the proposed invention is to balancethe total traffic data volume among the connection boards by movingconnections from over-loaded boards to under-loaded boards. In generalconnection boards with low capacity are less preferred compared toconnection boards with high capacity when it comes to hosting ofconnections. This preference can be due to the fact that e.g. fewer highcapacity connection boards than low capacity ones are needed in order tohost the same traffic data volume. The multiplication of the totaltraffic load of the least capacity connection board with the boardfactor results, artificially, in a higher total traffic data volume. Asmentioned before, the re-distribution mechanism foresees moving ofconnections from connection boards with higher volume to ones with lowervolume. By increasing the total traffic data volume hosted by the leastcapacity connection board using the board factor reduces the possibilitythat connections are moved to this specific board when executing there-distribution mechanism is reduced.

FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram of the re-distribution method according tothe invention. In step 302 the method is started. The method can bestarted automatically upon e.g. expiration of a timer. It can startperiodically in specific time frames. In step 304 the total traffic datavolume of the connection boards is measured. Based on the measurement itcan be determined which connection boards have the highest and thelowest total traffic data volume. In step 306 the difference between thehighest and the lowest total traffic data volumes is calculated. Basedon this difference, in step 308, a connection is selected to be movedfrom the board having the highest total traffic to e.g. the board havingthe least total traffic data volume. Alternatively, multiple connectionsmay be selected to be moved in parallel. As mentioned before, the goalof moving the connection is to minimize the calculated difference andbalance the total traffic data volumes among all available connectionboards. For this purpose, in step 308, more than one connection may beselected to be moved. In general at first a connection is moved from theboard having the highest total traffic to the board having the leasttotal traffic data volume. Nevertheless if further connections arechosen to be moved, it may happen that these will be moved among boardsother than the ones with the most and the least total traffic datavolume, if that better serves the purpose of balancing the loads overthe connection boards.

Further, in step 310, and after one or more connections have been chosento be moved in step 308, a new parallel connection is created over theconnection board towards which the selected connection will be moved. Anew parallel connection is created for each one of the connectionsselected to be moved. Once the parallel connections are created all newservice requests are directed towards these new parallel connections, asshown in step 312. In the meantime, the connections selected to be movedremain until all ongoing service requests or any other type of trafficis terminated. The new connections are called parallel because they arecreated and maintained for some time in parallel with the connectionsselected to be moved. Once service requests or any other type of trafficis terminated over one or more of the connections to be moved then theseconnection or connections are unbound in step 314. The mechanismdescribed can be executed as a loop as shown by arrow 316 by startingagain in step 302. Steps 310, 312 and 314 can be considered to comprisethe moving of a selected connection from one connection board toanother. Since no disruption of ongoing connections occurs during theprocess of re-distributing the connections and especially during theprocess of moving them, as described in steps 310, 312 and 314, it canbe considered that the proposed mechanism can be realized withoutaffecting ongoing operations. The mechanism described can be appliedboth in the case where all connection boards have the same traffic datavolume capacity or where they have different traffic data volumecapacities.

In an embodiment of the current invention, one of the connection boardsin the pool can be selected as a stand-by board. The selection can bemade either before the start of the re-distribution method describedabove or after the method is ended. A flow diagram of this embodiment isshown in FIG. 4. In step 410 the stand-by board selection is started.Within the pool of available connection boards, the one with the leastnumber of established connections is selected in step 412. In case allthe available boards have the same traffic load capacity then only thenumber of established connections influences the selection of theconnection board. In case there are connection boards with differenttraffic load capacities then the selection can be based on this factorand then the connection board with the least capacity, and potentiallywith the least number of established connections, is selected in step412. The least number of connections may also mean that a selectedconnection board hosts no connections at all. This is checked in step414. If the number of connections hosted on the selected connectionboard is 0 then this board is set as a stand-by board in step 424. Ifthe check of step 414 shows that the number of connections is greaterthan 0 then a procedure of moving all established connections from theselected board to other boards is started in step 416. In this step afirst connection to be moved is selected.

Further steps 418, 420 and 422 are executed as described for steps 310,312 and 314 in FIG. 3. The procedure of steps 414 to 422 as describedcan be repeated until there is no established connection left on theselected connection board. Once this is achieved and the check of step414 shows that there are no more established connections then asmentioned above, in step 424 the selected connection board is set as astand-by board.

There can be two benefits from setting a connection board as a stand-byconnection board. First, this board can be used in case a failure of oneof the other connection boards occurs. In this case connections can betransferred from the connection board where the failure occurs towardsthe stand-by connection board. Second, the selection of a stand-by boardprovides the possibility to omit a less powerful, in terms of capacityor performance, connection board from a pool of connection boards.

The invention can also be embodied in a device which can be adapted toperform any embodiments of the proposed method as described above. Anembodiment of such a device is shown in FIG. 5. The device 500 comprisesa comparator 504 which is adapted to compare two or more total trafficdata volumes hosted by two or more connection boards accordingly. Thetotal traffic data volumes can be measured by a measuring entity 502which can be connected to the connection boards. The measurement of thetraffic data volume hosted by each connection board can be obtained byan interface 510 implemented in the device 500. The measuring entity 502can be implemented separately outside the device 500. Alternatively itcan be implemented as part of the device 500 (not shown in the figure).The comparison performed by the comparator 504 aims to determine thedifference between the measured total traffic data volumes and by thatto identity which connections boards handle the most and the least datavolumes. The result of the comparison is communicated to a processor 506which is also part of the device 500. The processor 506 is adapted toinvoke a procedure for re-distributing the existing connections over theconnection boards whose traffic data volumes were measured by themeasuring entity 502. The appropriate procedure is decided by theprocessor and can be invoked from an execution entity 508. The executionentity 508 can be implemented outside the device 500, as shown in FIG.5, or inside the device 500 (not shown in the figure). The executionentity 508 can also be adapted to execute the invoked procedure.Furthermore the execution entity 508 may include more than one procedurefor distributing the connections. One of these procedures can be, forexample, the re-distribution mechanism described before. The processor506 can invoke an appropriate procedure which will determine whichconnections will be moved in order to better distribute the traffic datavolumes over the connection boards, based on the input provided by thecomparator.

The device 500 can be further adapted to perform the selection of aconnection board as a stand-by board.

A device like the one shown in FIG. 5 could, for example, be implementedin or next to a client, e.g. a router or a node in a telecommunicationnetwork. In this sense the device could be implemented inside theconnection distributor shown in FIG. 1.

The above embodiments admirably achieve the objects of the invention.However, it will be appreciated that departures can be made by thoseskilled in the art without departing from the scope of the inventionwhich is limited only by the claims.

1. A method in a telecommunications network for distributing a pluralityof connections towards a receiving domain, wherein the plurality ofconnections are established over at least two connection entities, eachconnection entity handling traffic being associated to the plurality ofconnections, wherein an initial procedure distributes the plurality ofconnections among the connection entities, the method comprising thesteps of: determining for each of the at least two connection entities atraffic load associated with the plurality of connections over eachrespective connection entity, comparing the traffic loads associatedwith the connections over the at least two connection entities, invokinga procedure for adapting the distribution of the connections accordingto the comparison, wherein the procedure for adapting the distributionof the plurality of connections comprises moving at least one connectionestablished over a first of the at least two connection entities to asecond of the at least two connection entities, and wherein the movingof the at least one connection comprises the steps of: establishing afurther connection over the second connection entity, where the furtherconnection of the second connection entity is created and maintained inparallel with the at least one connection of the first connectionentity, transmitting new service requests over the further connection ofthe second connection entity, and releasing the at least one connectionof the first connection entity once ongoing service requests arecompleted, wherein a traffic volume factor determines a traffic capacityof each connection entity and the traffic volume factor adjusts theprocedure for adapting the distribution of the plurality of connections.2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of connectionstransmit service requests to the receiving domain.
 3. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the receiving domain comprises a serverdatabase.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the invocation ofthe procedure for adapting the distribution of the plurality ofconnections is initiated after expiration of a timer.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the procedure for adapting thedistribution of the plurality of connections comprises minimizing adifference between the traffic loads associated with the plurality ofconnections over each of the at least two connection entities.
 6. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the procedure for adapting thedistribution of the at least two connections comprises selecting atleast one third connection entity as a stand-by connection entity, wherethe at least one third connection entity has least capacity andpotentially least number of established connections when compared to theat least two connection entities, wherein the selecting step comprises:determining if number of hosted connections on the at least one thirdconnection entity is zero; if result of the determining step is yes,then setting the at least one third connection entity as the stand-byconnection entity; if result of the determining step is no, thenstarting a procedure of moving all established connections from the atleast one third connection entity to the at least two connectionentities, wherein the moving step comprises steps of: establishing afurther connection over one of the at least two connection entities,where the further connection of the one of the at least two connectionentities is created and maintained in parallel with one of theestablished connections of the at least one third connection entity,transmitting new service requests over the further connection of the oneof the at least two connection entities, and releasing the oneestablished connection of the at least one third connection entity onceongoing service requests are completed, wherein the establishing step,the transmitting step, and the releasing step are repeated until thereis no established connection left on the at least one third connectionentity.
 7. A device in a telecommunications network for distributing aplurality of connections towards a receiving domain, wherein theplurality of connections are established over at least two connectionentities, each connection entity handling traffic being associated tothe plurality of connections, wherein an initial procedure distributesthe connections among the at least two connection entities, the devicecomprising: obtaining, by an interface, for each of the at least twoconnection entities, a traffic load associated with the plurality ofconnections over each respective connection entity, comparing, by acomparator, the traffic loads associated with the plurality ofconnections over at least two connection entities, obtained by theinterface, and invoking, by a processor, a procedure for adapting thedistribution of the plurality of connections according to the comparisonperformed by the comparator, wherein the processor invokes the procedurefor adapting the distribution of the plurality of connections by movingat least one connection established over a first of the at least twoconnection entities to a second of the at least two connection entities,and wherein the processor is adapted to move the at least one connectionby: establishing a further connection over the second connection entity,where the further connection of the second connection entity is createdand maintained in parallel with the at least one connection of the firstconnection entity, transmitting new service requests over the furtherconnection of the second connection entity, releasing the at least oneconnection of the first connection entity once ongoing service requestsare completed, and using a traffic volume factor to determine a trafficcapacity of each connection entity, wherein the traffic volume factoradjusts the procedure for adapting the distribution of the connections.8. The device according to claim 7, wherein the plurality of connectionstransmit service requests to the receiving domain.
 9. The deviceaccording to claim 7, wherein the receiving domain comprises a serverdatabase.
 10. The device according to claim 7, wherein the processorinvokes the procedure for adapting the distribution of the plurality ofconnections after an expiration of a timer.
 11. The device according toclaim 7, wherein the processor uses the procedure for adapting thedistribution of the plurality of connections for minimizing a differencebetween the traffic loads associated with the plurality of connectionsover each of the at least two connection entities.
 12. The deviceaccording to claim 7, wherein the processor uses the procedure foradapting the distribution of the plurality of connections for selectingat least one third connection entity as a stand-by connection entity,where the at least one third connection entity has least capacity andpotentially least number of established connections when compared to theat least two connection entities, wherein the processor is adapted toselecting the at least one third connection entity as the stand-byconnection entity by: determining if number of hosted connections on theat least one third connection entity is zero; if result of thedetermining step is yes, then setting the at least one third connectionentity as the stand-by connection entity; if result of the determiningstep is no, then starting a procedure of moving all establishedconnections from the at least one third connection entity to the atleast two connection entities, wherein the moving step comprises stepsof: establishing a further connection over one of the at least twoconnection entities, where the further connection of the one of the atleast two connection entities is created and maintained in parallel withone of the established connections of the at least one third connectionentity, transmitting new service requests over the further connection ofthe one of the at least two connection entities, and releasing the oneestablished connection of the at least one third connection entity onceongoing service requests are completed, wherein the establishing step,the transmitting step, and the releasing step are repeated until thereis no established connection left on the at least one third connectionentity.
 13. A method in a telecommunications network for distributing aplurality of connections towards a receiving domain, wherein theplurality of connections are established over at least two connectionentities, each connection entity handling traffic being associated tothe plurality of connections, wherein an initial procedure distributesthe plurality of connections among the connection entities, the methodcomprising the steps of: determining for each of the at least twoconnection entities a traffic load associated with the plurality ofconnections over each respective connection entity, comparing thetraffic loads associated with the connections over the at least twoconnection entities, invoking a procedure for adapting the distributionof the connections according to the comparison, wherein the procedurefor adapting the distribution of the at least two connections comprisesselecting at least one third connection entity which has least capacityand potentially with least number of established connections whencompared to the at least two connection entities as a stand-byconnection entity, wherein the selecting step comprises: determining ifnumber of hosted connections on the at least one third connection entityis zero; if result of the determining step is yes, then setting the atleast one third connection entity as the stand-by connection entity; ifresult of the determining step is no, then starting a procedure ofmoving all established connections from the at least one thirdconnection entity to the at least two connection entities, wherein themoving step comprises steps of: establishing a further connection overone of the at least two connection entities, where the furtherconnection of the one of the at least two connection entities is createdand maintained in parallel with one of the established connections ofthe at least one third connection entity, transmitting new servicerequests over the further connection of the one of the at least twoconnection entities, and releasing the one established connection of theat least one third connection entity once ongoing service requests arecompleted, wherein the establishing step, the transmitting step, and thereleasing step are repeated until there is no established connectionleft on the at least one third connection entity.
 14. A device in atelecommunications network for distributing a plurality of connectionstowards a receiving domain, wherein the plurality of connections areestablished over at least two connection entities, each connectionentity handling traffic being associated to the plurality ofconnections, wherein an initial procedure distributes the connectionsamong the at least two connection entities, the device comprising:obtaining, by an interface, for each of the at least two connectionentities, a traffic load associated with the plurality of connectionsover each respective connection entity, comparing, by a comparator, thetraffic loads associated with the plurality of connections over at leasttwo connection entities, obtained by the interface, and invoking, by aprocessor, a procedure for adapting the distribution of the plurality ofconnections according to the comparison performed by the comparator, theprocessor further invokes the procedure for adapting the distribution ofthe plurality of connections for selecting at least one third connectionentity as a stand-by connection entity, where the at least one thirdconnection entity has least capacity and potentially least number ofestablished connections when compared to the at least two connectionentities, wherein the processor is adapted to selecting the at least onethird connection entity as the stand-by connection entity by:determining if number of hosted connections on the at least one thirdconnection entity is zero; if result of the determining step is yes,then setting the at least one third connection entity as the stand-byconnection entity; if result of the determining step is no, thenstarting a procedure of moving all established connections from the atleast one third connection entity to the at least two connectionentities, wherein the moving step comprises steps of: establishing afurther connection over one of the at least two connection entities,where the further connection of the one of the at least two connectionentities is created and maintained in parallel with one of theestablished connections of the at least one third connection entity,transmitting new service requests over the further connection of the oneof the at least two connection entities, and releasing the oneestablished connection of the at least one third connection entity onceongoing service requests are completed, wherein the establishing step,the transmitting step, and the releasing step are repeated until thereis no established connection left on the at least one third connectionentity.